John Hughes

John Hughes in 1984. Associated Press

Updated: Aug. 6, 2009

John Hughes, the once-prolific filmmaker whose sweet and sassy comedies like "Sixteen Candles" and "The Breakfast Club" plumbed the lives of teenagers in the 1980s, died Aug. 6, 2009 on a morning walk while visiting Manhattan. He was 59.

The cause was a heart attack, according to a statement from the publicists Paul Bloch and Michelle Bega.

Mr. Hughes turned out a series of hits that captured audiences and touched popular culture - and then flummoxed both Hollywood and his fans by suddenly fading from the scene in the early 1990s. He surfaced sometimes as a writer, occasionally under his pen name, Edmond Dantès, the real name of the Dumas hero in "The Count of Monte Cristo."

His seeming disappearance inspired a 2009 documentary, "Don't You Forget About Me," by four young filmmakers who went in search of a man who was by then being compared to J. D. Salinger because of his reclusiveness. It became a tribute to Mr. Hughes's influence on youth culture. - MICHAEL CIEPLY

Twenty years ago this month, just after I had finished seventh grade, I went to visit a cousin in Kansas who managed a movie theater. ''Sixteen Candles'' was opening the night I arrived. ''It's about high school,'' my cousin said, ''and there aren't any stars in it.''

It's Friday night on the movie set, and John Hughes is on familiar ground: a high-school gymnasium. With a characteristic mixture of self-deprecation and pride, Hughes still occasionally calls himself the "teen king."

At a time when movies for and about teen-agers have become even more prevalent in Hollywood than Porsches in the studio parking lots, Mr. Hughes, who turned 36 last week, is quickly emerging as the auteur of the youth-film genre, the man whose pictures take kids seriously and still make money.

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TWENTY years ago this month, just after I had finished seventh grade, I went to visit a cousin in Kansas who managed a movie theater. ''Sixteen Candles'' was opening the night I arrived. ''It's about high school,'' my cousin said, ''and there...

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An English class at John Hughes High School. The teacher, interrupted by a burst of flatulence from one of his students and a burst of laughter from the rest of them, launches into an impassioned tirade against the younger generation's sense of...